It was inevitable. Very few rookies avoid having their names associated with the phrase. It happens to almost all of them.

Here’s the thing about the dreaded rookie wall: You can’t hit it unless you’re going full speed. No one is talking about Anthony Bennett hitting the rookie wall. Or Otto Porter. Or Alex Len. All of them were taken ahead of MCW in the 2013 draft. They’ve been forgotten or ignored this season, except when they’ve been criticized.

Not Carter-Williams. He’s been excellent for most of the year, which is why he recently addressed the rookie wall. When you play as well as he did as quickly as he did, and you stumble even for a moment, people want to know what happened to your gait and why.

If you look at MCW’s game log, you’ll notice a few mid-January hiccups: seven points and two assists against the Heat; 10 points and five assists at the Bulls; eight points and four assists vs. the Thunder.

These things happen. Last year’s rookie of the year, Portland’s fantastic point guard Damian Lillard, has also struggled a bit of late. Over the last two weeks, his points, three-pointers, assists, rebounds and three-pointers made per game have all dipped some. And last week, he scored 14 or fewer points in four out of five games.

But since there isn’t a sophomore wall, no one hounded Lillard. No one should have bothered Carter-Williams, either. MCW just put up 22 points and 11 assists against Phoenix. He’s the rookie of the year, and it isn’t close.

Through Tuesday, MCW led all rookies in points (17.4), assists (6.7), rebounds (5.6) and steals per game (2.4). That puts him on pace to become just third rookie since 1950-51 to sweep scoring, assists and rebounding among rookies. The other two: Oscar Robertson in 1960-61 and Alvan Adams in 1975-76.

There’s more. Only three rookies in NBA history have averaged 17 points, 6.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds for the season: Robertson, Magic Johnson (79-80) and Steve Francis (99-00). OK, fine, toss out the last one. But the first two are excellent company.